Entertainment

OK, what's the deal with Jon Snow? A post-'Game of Thrones' finale timeline

Warning: This article is spoiler central for Game of Thrones. If you haven’t caught up with the show, and have somehow still not been spoiled, proceed with caution.

It’s only been a few months since the unspeakable happened to our favorite bastard on HBO’s Game of Thrones — but the battered GoT fanbase's optimism is remarkable. Every day, it seems, there's word of a new piece of evidence pointing to Jon Snow's survival — and a new interview with someone involved with the show who swears up and down that he's really, truly, 100% dead.

From fan theories to instigating showrunners, here’s a timeline of Snow speculation and general emotional upheaval:

June 14, 2015 The Night’s Watch commits mutiny by stabbing Lord Commander Jon Snow an inordinate amount of times, leaving him to bleed out into the snow. Meanwhile, Twitter riots.

Fans of the show immediately latch onto any and all theories that have been circulating amongst readers of George R.R. Martin’s books for years. One of the most popular is that the Red Woman, Melisandre — who has just arrived at the Wall — can bring Lord Snow back to life in some form.

June 15, 2015Kit Harington tells Entertainment Weekly that he loved his last scene in the finale. “I think it was really well crafted by [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss],” he said. “It felt like the right way for it to happen." Harington says he does not expect to return next season. Twitter continues to riot.

June 16, 2015Actress Maisie Williams freaks out about Jon’s death in a Twitter Q&A and resurrects the pain, just as we're all starting to return to our lives.

June 26, 2015Emilia Clarke, better known as Daenerys of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of Meereen, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lady Regnant of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons, tells MTV there’s a “50/50 chance” of Jon Snow coming back. “I mean, there’s some helpful people there who could bring him on back to life,” she adds, alluding to Melisandre’s sorcery. Finally, there's hope!

July 3, 2015Kit Harington appears at Wimbledon still sporting Snow’s haircut, the most lustrous and impractical in the seven kingdoms (at least his head is warm?). The fact that he didn’t immediately cut his hair after the finale aired makes us think that Snow may not be dead — or at least, not gone.

July 10, 2015David Nutter, who directed the Season 5 finale, tells Comic-Con attendees that Jon Snow really is dead. Worse yet, he reportedly also told the President of the United States that Snow is “deader than dead" — proving that the heartlessness of Team Thrones knows no bounds.

July 14, 2015HBO releases a list of filming locations for the upcoming season, including a tower that resembles the place where fans speculate Jon Snow was born. Flashbacks, maybe? Are we finally learning the truth about Jon’s parents? YOU KNOW NOTHING, BABY SNOW.

July 16, 2015Harington is spotted arriving in Belfast, where Thrones films its Night’s Watch scenes. He reportedly declines to take any photos with fans, fanning the flames of secrecy, conspiracy, and fake filmed death.

Sept. 3, 2015 Amanda Peet, wife of GoT showrunner David Benioff, goes on Jimmy Kimmel Live and says she no longer loves her husband because of Snow’s fate. “I’m in the process of getting a divorce,” she told Kimmel. She even speculates about Kit Harington’s hair, legitimizing every inch of our madness.

Sept. 10, 2015An aerial drone catches filming for Season 6 of Game of Thrones. Jon Snow is absent. Twitter continues to grumble in discontent.

Sept. 15, 2015In an interview with a Belgian magazine, Harington says that Game of Thrones “will remain a part of my life for a while,” referring to the length of his contract. “I’ll probably be in my thirties when it’s over,” the 28-year old actor said. Reddit spirals, with fans questioning everything from the exact interview date to whether Harington’s contract renegotiation was a decoy to throw us off the scent of death.

Sept. 25, 2015Photos surface of Kit Harington in costume on set in Belfast. He has a man bun.

Oct. 2, 2015Maisie Williams makes news yet again by telling us that — wait for it — Jon is dead. “I’m not a liar,” she says in her interview with Absolute Radio...but any Game of Thrones fan knows that you can't trust literally anything or anyone.

It’s been a tough road for Jon Snow fans, the Game of Thrones fandom, and pretty much anyone with social media — and with months to go before Season 6 premieres, that road is far from over. Who will be the next to definitively tell us that Lord Snow isn’t coming back? Who are Jon’s true parents? Is Kit Harington’s barber going into hiding?

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